This study aims to investigate early Muslim scholars' understanding of the pandemic, as well as their efforts to dealing with, reducing, and curbing its psychological repercussions. The study employs an inductive and analytical interpretation of early Muslim texts on pandemics. The study shows that early Muslim thinkers interpret the pandemic from various perspectives including the divine decree, nature of human behaviour and his connection with God, and the natural world’s circumstances.

This article highlights different challenging emotional states exhibited by several prominent figures as narrated in the Qur’ān, and the approach taken by the Qur’ān in presenting and intervening with particular psycho-spiritual processes, which triggered such emotions. Materials and method: Anger (Q.12:84; Q.21:87), sadness (Q.12:86; Q.28:7), hopelessness (Q.19:23), trepidation (Q.19:24), and self-rumination/condemnation (Q.18:6) are among the conditions adversely affecting the emotional states of particular individuals, as exhibited in several Qur’ānic stories. Qualitative in nature, the article employs both content and textual analyses on selective verses of qaṣaṣ (narratives/stories) in the Qur’ān. Content analysis probes deeper into the context of the whole qiṣṣah (story) to examine the underlying causes that triggered certain state of emotion. Whilst textual analysis assists in the clear understanding of the verses in terms of meaning, linguistic value and coherence between verses surrounding the focal issue. Conclusion: The finding suggests that challenging emotions and their interventions as portrayed by Qur’ānic narratives are outcomes of both contextual implications, as well as psycho-spiritual states. These are normal human responses, even by prominent Qur’anic figures. Thoughts, psychological patterns and spiritual awareness pose as major contributing factors towards certain exposition of challenging emotional states. The significance lies in the way that their psycho-spiritual wakefulness has fortified them, enabling them to garner positive coping mechanisms to cope successfully.

Islam has given great importance to knowledge acquisition, preservation, application and dissemination. It regards knowledge as one of the uncountable favours of Allah and His greatest gift to mankind. With knowledge, not only mankind can change the environment or create a civilization, but they are also able to distinguish reality from illusion, truth from falsehood or other alternatives. Despite the value of knowledge and its indispensability, there is a lack of consensus among epistemologists and philosophers as to what knowledge is and where it comes from or how it is acquired. This article sets out to: first, evaluate Plato’s view that knowledge is “justified true belief”; second define and explain the meaning of knowledge from the Islamic and Western perspectives; third, identify the ways of knowing or methods of acquiring knowledge, and; finally, describe the relationship between ‘ilm or the all-embracing Islamic epistemic term, and the following Islamic concepts: yaqin (certainty), iman (belief, faith or conviction which is based on reason and knowledge), taqwa (God-consciousness), hikmah (wisdom) and ma‘rifah (recognition of Allah, knowledge of the reality of things, etc.). This article is based on desk research and it draws on primary Islamic sources namely, the Qur’an and Hadith, as well as secondary works on the concept of knowledge from the Islamic and Western perspectives. Translation of the meanings of the selected verses from the Qur’an is based on ‘Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali’s Translation of the Meaning of the Qur’an except in a few places where other translations seemed more appropriate. After reading this exposition of knowledge, one should be able to: (a) explain the meaning and concept of knowledge from the Islamic and Western perspectives, (b) examine the relationship between knowledge and information, and ‘ilm and taqwa, ma‘rifah, iman and hikmah, and (c) differentiate between the Islamic and Western perspectives of knowledge.

In Islam, spirituality means worshipping God, seeking the satisfaction of God, awareness of the origin of the universe, humility, submission, and trust, which man demonstrates in all of his actions. In this way, an individual's oath to Allah is the focal point of Islamic spirituality. When discussing the role of spirituality in touching the unending episode of happiness in this world and the next world, the nature of spirituality continues to develop beyond one’s imagination. The word "spiritual" comes from the Latin word "spiritus," indicating breath, an essential element of human life. Without breathing, there is no life; therefore, every aspect of living, in essence, is related to the realm of the spiritual. Spirituality is also essential in human life experiences through the physical and mental senses, which are difficult to express in ordinary language. They have something to do with deep knowledge, dealing with living and non-living things and the metaphysical. Searching for a true sense of spirituality could show a path to self-identity that can answer who we are, where we come from, and our destination. This paper discusses the significance of the development of spirituality, starting from an individual to the family and society. It provides methods of developing spirituality, the nature of the development of spiritual values, training the children with the inculcation of religious teachings, and a comparison of spiritual values in Islamic and western practices. This research applies the descriptive-analytical method. It attempts to illustrate the significance of applying spirituality in the family and society at large as a catalyst towards the prosperity of this world and the next.

Masjid or otherwise known as mosque is meant for tahānuth among the Muslims. By tahānuÏh, it refers to Muslims ‟ devotion in showing servitude and servility of obedience to Allah, the supreme Creator”. Masjid Qubā’ was the first mosque which the Prophet peace upon him laid its foundation. Islam gives prominence to three mosques: masjid al-Haram, masjid al-Nabawī and masjid al-Aqṣā. With the establishment of the masjid during the prophetic era, masjid played various roles such as spiritual, social, political, economic and more importantly it fostered networking opportunities among the disciples of the Prophet peace be upon him. Muslims meet in the masjid five times daily and once in a year in masjid al-Harām. Masjid is undeniably has a tendency of promoting the integration of all spheres of human affairs in the era of globalization. Unfortunately, the roles of masjid have been restricted to the spirituality whereby its inclusive role of networking opportunities has been fervently neglected in the era of globalization. Therefore, the primary aim and objective of this paper is to investigate and expand the role of masjid through the view-lens of networking opportunities among the contemporary Muslims in the era of globalization. In so doing, Muslims will maximize the opportunities of meeting in the masjid towards the enhancement of peaceful co-existence, unity, harmony. It is thereby recommended that, the management of masjid should provide a platform for promoting networking opportunities among the Muslims.

A popular phrase we hear when someone said or did something wrong is “he/she succumbed to logical mind”. This paradoxical statement has become a big wall that people would go to hide and escape from giving defensible justifications for claims made especially claims on religious beliefs and the unseen existences. This pose a huge problem for those who use logical thinking to evaluate the truth value of any proposition as if logical thinking would result in wrong judgment on truth and ethical proposition. What is more, some hold the belief that the Qur’ān shuns logic and thus Muslims are prohibited from applying logical thinking to determine truth from falsehood. This study explored young Muslims’ understanding of the concept of logic to get some insight on this phenomenon, so that informed decisions and planning could be made to arrest this confusion. Moreover, an assessment of young Muslims’ understandings is very important to ensure that they are in line with Qur’ānic teachings. Qualitative analysis was used to analyse data collected from 10 participants using semi-structured interviews. Since face to face interaction was not possible because of the current pandemic, interviews were done using Zoom, Google Meet and WhatsApp. The emergent themes that could be extracted from the participants’ responses were confusion on the understanding of ʿaql and the relationship between the spiritual brain and heart; logical mind as means to solve problems of non-religious issues; and the negative consequences of logical thinking (among others, that it could lead to unbelief). However, a minority of the respondents viewed logical thinking as necessary to understand revelation. This study also found that the young Muslims were weak in logical thinking.

Deconstruction is a post-structuralist, intellectual, and critical theory, formulated by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s. It is an approach to re-reading literary and philosophical given their multiple possible meanings. This article seeks to present a brief account of deconstruction: its epistemological roots of Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger, major concepts, tools. Then, it presents a critique of deconstruction, especially in the works of John Ellis and Abdel Aziz Hammouda. Furthermore, the article briefly refers to the impact of the deconstruction on the religious text (the Holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah), as some Arab secularists have laid particular stress on the application of this Western hermeneutics to Islamic texts. For them, it is deemed as a necessary step to ensure that the religious text remains open to many interpretations, and responds to different circumstances and conditions. The article argues that deconstruction, as a literary philosophical doctrine, has been born of Western modernity. And therefore, it does not seem appropriate to transform it into a civilization with different cultural and religious components.

The thrust of this paper is civilisation, its concept, history, necessity, and various characteristics. It is divided into twelve parts entitled: first, various definitions of civilisation; second, types of civilisations; third, civilisation and culture; fourth, the inner side of civilisation; fifth, the material and non-material aspects of civilisation; sixth, history of civilisation; seventh, God, human beings and nature; eighth, reasons for studying the history of human civilisations; ninth, the need for civilisation; tenth, characteristics of civilisation; eleventh, positive and negative effects of civilisation on human lives and the environment, twelfth, a glance at ancient nations and the Muslim nation from the Qur’anic perspective. This article is based on desk research and it draws on primary Islamic sources namely, the Qur’an and Hadith, as well as secondary works on the concept of knowledge from the Islamic and Western perspectives. Translation of the meanings of the selected verses from the Qur’an is based on ‘Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali’s Translation of the Meaning of the Qur’an.

This article argues that secular humanists’ scholars like postmodernists are developing great interest in spirituality as though they are beginning to have a positive approach towards religion and as though they are beginning to abandon their secular humanistic beliefs. Despite such positive approach towards spiritualism, they have not changed their position against religion. In fact, in the spiritual practices of Eastern religions such as the transcendental meditation of Buddhism and Hinduism in healing Western troubled souls has however no clear relationship with religiosity. In the same vein, Postmodern preaches that mental growth, development, inner peace and contentment are gained on a personal and individual level instead of developing a relationship with God. This kind of secularization to spirituality is absurd and confusing to Muslims who do not differentiate between the Western conceptions of spirituality and religiosity. Hence, the objective of this paper is to address the issue of spirituality brought forth by secular humanism and postmodern, by drawing the distinction between western secular conception of spirituality and Islamic spirituality, the nature and the significant of spirituality and the relationship between spirituality and religiosity and spiritual intelligence. This paper concludes there is a necessary and positive relationship between religious and spiritual practices and psycho-spiritual wellbeing and life as a whole. From Islamic perspective, no spirituality without religiosity. Spirituality is the essence of religiosity and they are undoubtedly of equal important and significant to understand the role of religion which is revealed from God, as a way of life. Hence, there is no good without God.

Given the influence of secularism in interpreting social facts, the present study highlights the relevance of recognising cultural convergence as the ultimate panacea to the decades of unresolved conflicts amongst various cultural groups in the Philippines. The study underlines that the surviving epistemological foundation between two opposing cultures of knowledge must be taken as the point of reference in resolving historical injustices done to the Muslim communities. The transformation of Muslim education through government policy interventions and meaningful collaborations with Muslim leaders and scholars may provide a holistic framework for enhancing social and knowledge integration, particularly in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). As such, the present study does not intend to provide a comprehensive revision of historical accounts about Islam in the Philippines; instead, it proposes an alternative approach in writing a history of Muslim education by embracing the universal principles that shape human culture and civilisation. Framed from the national agenda for social integration via education, the study views the prominence of systematic narration of the past events that captured the characteristics of Muslim communities, whose system of life and governance is based on advanced culture and civilisation is shaped by tawhidic worldview. In addition, the study maintains that drifting away from humanities and civilisational studies, which aims to restore values, ethics, morality, and vitality to a system of knowledge, will certainly result in losing the essence of education. Therefore, historians of education need to get up to speed to educate and inform people of the values necessary for understanding the existence of others. The methodology of the study is qualitative. It relies on primary and secondary sources on the history of Muslim education in the Philippines, government documents regarding policies in addressing the problem of Muslims in the Philippines, unpublished works, and interviews in addition to library research. The study recommends that historians of education should embrace the true principle of cultural convergence. Such profound recognition of ‘others’ and ‘us’ via the history of education may be achieved through inclusivity and open-minded outlooks, which recognises that BARMM is plural and a diverse community that is mutually connected with the universal teachings of Islam as religion, which encompasses culture, and civilisation.